Introductory 3 



exterminated, gave fairly grotesque names to the 

 great antelopes, calling them after the European 

 elk, stag, and chamois. The French did but little 

 better in Canada. Even in Ceylon the EngUsh, 

 although belonging for the most part to the edu- 

 cated classes, did no better than the ordinary 

 pioneer settlers, miscalling the sambur stag an 

 elk, and the leopard a cheetah. Our own pioneers 

 behaved in the same way. Hence it is that we 

 have no distinctive name at all for the group of 

 peculiarly American game birds of which the bob- 

 white is the typical representative ; and that, when 

 we could not use the words quail, partridge, or 

 pheasant, we went for our terminology to the 

 barn-yard, and called our fine grouse, fool-hens, 

 sage-hens, and prairie-chickens. The bear and 

 wolf our people recognized at once. The bison 

 they called a buffalo, which was no worse than 

 the way in which every one in Europe called the 

 Old World bison an aurochs. The American true 

 elk and reindeer were rechristened moose and 

 caribou — excellent names, by the way, derived 

 from the Indian. The huge stag was called an 

 elk. The extraordinary antelope of the high 

 Western peaks was christened the white goat ; not 

 unnaturally, as it has a most goatlike look. The 

 prongbuck of the plains, an animal standing as 

 much alone among ruminants as does the giraffe, 

 was simply called antelope. Even when we 



